Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/141

 * THE CITY OF GOD 105 At Constantine's call the first general or oecumenical ouncil of all Christian churches met at Nicaea, near Con- tantinople, in 325 and decided against Arianism. Christian - t There now had come to be a regular series of the state iffices through which a clergyman usually had to re lglon >ass; namely, reader, exorcist, acolyte, sub-deacon, deacon, )riest, and bishop. For there was now a clear distinction the Church between mere believers, the laymen or laity, nd those who officiated in the churches, the clergy. The flergy were given many privileges by the Christian sue- lessors of Constantine, as their edicts in the Theodosian pode show. They were in large measure personally ex- jmpted from state duties and taxes; and in most criminal [nd some civil cases were to be tried by their own bishops lather than by the imperial courts. Before Christianity had t>een recognized by the State, it was often the practice for pe laity as well as the clergy to settle their disputes pri- vately before their bishop instead of in the public courts, .nd the emperors now allowed the bishops to continue this urisdiction to a certain extent. The emperors would not permit rich men to escape paying taxes by becoming clergy- ben, but they did allow the Church as a corporation to re- vive bequests, and themselves endowed it freely. Such ,hurch lands were subject to taxation, but this did not revent the Church and many individual bishops from trowing very wealthy, and by the fifth century the Church p estimated to have become the greatest landholder in the Empire. Although a century had elapsed between the time when 'onstantine presided at the Council of Nicaea and the pub- cation of The City of God, and although many Persistence diets against paganism had been issued in the of P a s anism iterim by Christian emperors, Augustine's book itself shows is that the pagan religions had not yet disappeared. Close fiends, members of the same family, even husband and rife, might still be, one pagan, the other Christian. It is ard to tell whether some of the extant writings of this eriod were penned by a Christian or not. There were men